If done correctly, business blogs can act as the biggest drivers of organic traffic to your website. Blogs for business are a free and easy task to help promote your company and solve problems for your audience. Despite the potential, many small businesses do not utilize a blog. Maybe, they don’t have the time, resources, or content ideas. So, while you may not need a blog for your business, there are big payoffs if you can prioritize quality blog content and use it to provide answers to questions that your customers ask. Let’s take a look at how to plan and execute effective content for business blogs.

Research and Plan Content

One of the biggest reasons companies do not start a blog is because they simply cannot find ideas to write about. Researching questions that are most frequently asked or finding topics where your business helps can bring traffic into the right place for answers and solutions. You can use tools such as SemRush or Google Adwords Keyword Tool to help you find what phrases and questions are most searched by potential customers.

Once you research topics, you can decide how many blogs you want to post a week. If you’re just starting, try to aim for at least one per week. A blog calendar will help you and your coworkers to be more relaxed and prepared on publishing day. With enough planning, you can have enough time and topics to promote your business for weeks.

Write TO Your Customers

One of the benefits of blogging for business is that it is an efficient way to make connections with your customers. Potential customers are the readers of your blogs, so make your blogs personal to them. They should answer questions or give pointers for that specific customer. This is where loyalty and trust begins.

You may even consider trading FAQ sections with blog sections to provide a more personal answer to specific questions. Learn your customer needs and write for them.

Choose a Title That People Search

Titles are the main parts that are searched. You want your blog to be popular when potential customers start looking for answers to problems that you have solutions for. The search engines for keywords can also help you with finding titles. Action verbs and questions are really important in this section.

In case you’re wondering, yes, “Do I need a blog for my business?” is a frequently searched question on Google.

Frequency and Consistency

The amount of times you blog is completely up to you, but aim for consistency and stick to your plan. Search engines like frequency and consistency, so the more you produce and stay on track, the higher you will be ranked.

Remember, your blog is not an essay and does not need to be essay length. Provide the answers in around 700 words. If it takes more, that is fine. Just try to not let it go under. Most customers will only scan your blog so be precise with your wording, and break the content into sections with subheadings.

Images and Visuals

No one enjoys just reading words. Use images such as graphs or pictures to attract the attention of the reader. Find ways to communicate by more than just words. Images and visuals will make your blog more attractive to the eye which will cause readers to want to read what you are saying.

Be careful with your choices! Make sure the choices are your own or from a free site such as Pexels or Openverse. Photographs and graphics are most likely intellectual property, so stick with stock photos if you don’t have the resources to create images in-house.

Use Your Coworkers

Blogging for business is not like a one-man band. Use your coworkers for ideas, and have them write their own blogs so you can have a variety of perspectives. Remember, you want your business blogs to be conversations with your customers. If your business has multiple team members, use their voices to provide diversity in expertise for your business blog.

If you are a part of the marketing team and you’ve been tasked with writing blogs, reach beyond your team. Try to involve everyone in the company when writing blogs for business. Range your variety from the CEO to the newest hire. This will reduce the risk of a burn out and produce the best content to represent your company.

Set a Culture

You and your coworkers can use blog posts to show a culture of who you are. Blogs are meant to be somewhat informal, so use this as a platform to showcase your business style. Respond to any comments that people make and use it as free insight from your audience. Respond in a manner that shows your culture by being polite and professional.

Review SEO and Readability

Search engine optimization and readability is very important when it comes to rating your business blogs. Website builders such as WordPress can review your SEO and readability for every webpage, including blog posts. This is a helpful tool to guide your content. You can also look to hire an SEO specialist or consultant if you really want to invest in blog content.

According to WordPress, you should audit every blog post to be sure it contains the following:

• Keyword Usage
• Outbound Links
• Internal Links
• Images
• Image Key-phrase
• Meta Description
• SEO Title

Readability is another key factor in how Google interprets your blog post. Here are some things to avoid in your content:

• Passive Voice
• Consecutive Sentences Beginning with the Same Word
• Disproportionate Content Blocks Within Subheadings
• Long Paragraphs and Sentences

Blogging for business can be simple when you plan the right steps. Build a blogging machine that produces quality content for your audience, and you’re on your way to an exponential increase in traffic to your website.